Interesting project

Hope you post more on your project as you add the RF, sound and batteries. I'll be following along.

Bernd

Rail Truck Electronics

I went back to my design program, TinkerCAD, and made a shadow box (grey) with the dimensions of the interior of the rail truck box (tan).  For electronics I'm using components from S-Cab (Stanton) and Soundtraxx.  Using the CAD program I was able to verify that I had plenty of room for one 1" speaker w/enclosure, two 800 mAh batteries, one BPS (battery power supply) and one S-CAB RF receiver bundled with one DCC decoder (Tsunami TSU 2200).  In the picture I slid back one of the batteries to show the layout of the rest of the components.  I plan to mount the speaker to the floor up towards the cab.  The batteries will be recharged through the wheels.  The RF Receiver will be mounted close to the roof so the truck can be started and stopped using the magnetic wand that Stanton provides.  The two rail trucks I have don't run due to broken gears in one and a short in the wiring on the other.  On both trucks I'm replacing the gears with NWSL metal gears and replacing all the wiring.

- Tom

Even Better

Just worked out on TinkerCAD that I can replace the BPS-800 batteries with BPS-1000 and still have plenty of room for wiring.  2000 mAh versus 1600 mAh.  Bonus!  Time to place the order with Stanton.

Following!

I’ve often thought of doing something similar but adding a passenger body or a rail bus. Nicely done. 

Details

I decided to use a “deep bass” speaker which is 0.170” wider and 0.118” taller than the ones I was getting from Stanton and I didn’t have enough wiggle room with the current design so I went back to TinkerCAD and widened the interior to accommodate it.  The walls were thick enough that I didn’t have to make the box any larger on the outside.  I’m still learning what I can get away with on the printer.  I also added a panel around the base, just because I thought it needed it.  The height of the box is the same as Bachmann’s On30 boxcars but I put a scale dude up against my rail truck box and the door looked kinda short.  Adding that panel around the bottom gave it some needed headroom inside.  I never realized how small those boxcars are.
 

Since I’ll be adding a roof rack and steps (are they called stirrups when they’re on the side?) on the back and sides I added 0.032” holes to accommodate the brass rod I’ll be using.  Doing the final print as I write this.  This is one thing I really like about having a 3D printer.  I can keep messing with the design until I’m happy.  Usually I’ll do a print and decide something doesn’t look right in real life, make a few changes and try again.  The price per copy is pretty cheap so the real cost is my time.  Which is also cheap.

- Tom

It’s All a Learning Process

Both of my On30 rail trucks are eBay specials.  They were advertised with operational problems but didn’t mention the missing parts, windshields and visors.  I could probably make these parts on my 3D printer but Bachmann still has them available as part of their cab body kit ($20.39) so I ordered two of those.  I also ordered two “Cab and Driver” packages ($11.33) for the snow plow and driver.    Didn’t realize at the time that this package also included a windshield and visor so I guess I’ll have extra parts for a future project.

I got my final prints finished for the cargo boxes.  Being new to the resin printer I had to fumble my way through to get it right.  My biggest problem was that half the roof didn’t attach to the print plate so it sagged severely.  At first I thought I had an alignment problem and went back and realigned everything which helped some but didn’t completely solve my problem.  After doing some research on the net I discovered one of the settings in the slicer program, Chitubox, had changed (bottom exposure).  Once that was corrected everything went great.

Once the boxes were printed out I used a Dremel with a sanding roll to clean up the roof where it had attached to the printing plate.  I later learned that parts printed this way develop a ridge, called an “elephant foot”, and this can be avoided by using breakaway supports.  Hafta try that next time.

I drilled out the 0.032” holes for the ladders and railings.  Alignment and spacing came out perfect because they had been laid out as part of the design and printing process.  I’m using 0.032” brass rod for these parts.  I tried making a fixture for the ladders (what’s the correct term for those?) but ended up using flat nosed pliers instead.  Originally I wanted to copy the design that Bachmann uses on their boxcars where they bend down from their mounting points.  I was able to copy the design but getting them in the holes was such a hassle I decided it wasn’t worth it.  Maybe if I enlarged the holes?  I’m still thinking about a roof rack but suspect I may be getting carried away with the details.

The best thing I learned in all this was that the resin printer is an awesome tool and a huge improvement over the filament printer I had been using.

- Tom

I contacted Neil Stanton,

I contacted Neil Stanton, S-cab, and found out that 1000 mAh batteries are currently out of stock.  Bummer.  All the other batteries, measured in pairs, are too thick or too long.  He helped me work up plan B which is to go with a single 800 mAh battery since the rail truck probably won’t use much juice anyway.  He also told me about a connector he sells, 21MTC, which will connect a 9 pin decoder to his 21 pin RF receiver making it all a simple plug-in.  I had thought the receiver only came paired with a decoder.  One of my rail trucks came with a working decoder, mystery manufacturer, that will plug right in to Neil’s connector.  That saves a coupla $!  I checked the wiring on the decoder and it is NMRA compliant so things are coming together.  Order is placed.  Since the RCBP (radio control, battery power) thing is kinda pricey I’ll do the truck with the decoder now and finish the other after I cash in my beer can collection.  Something I really appreciate about dealing with Neil Stanton is he guides you to what’s best for you, not necessarily what’s best for his wallet.  Thank you Neil.

- Tom

Rail Truck Update

After the S-cab components arrived I spent some time wiring them up.  Of the two trucks I have (both are eBay specials), one has a short and the other has broken gears.  I decided to chase down the short first and finally nailed it down to a short in the motor windings.  Bummer.  I was really banking on it being in the wiring.  This is supposed to be a cheap project repairing and upgrading broken vehicles so I decided to combine the better parts of the two trucks rather than pour more money into them.  I’ll invest in a new motor some time in the future and finish up the second truck then.  For now I have one truck with a good motor and new metal NWSL gears.  I wired up the decoder, battery + power supply, and the RF receiver and temporarily taped them up in the bed of the truck.  Everything fits well in the cargo box.  The head lights don’t work but I’m planning to add a plow so I’ll be adding lights on the roof of the cab.  After looking at some prototype photos I decided to add a large light on the roof and two smaller ones at the lower corners of the windshield.  I’m adding a small platform at the back half of the cab roof with a small gas tank and a horn.  There’ll be a bell mounted up by the grill.  I’ve been working on the design of these detail parts but haven’t printed anything  out yet.

The photo below shows the detail parts I’m working on.  Neither of the trucks had visors so I’m gonna print my own.  There are two smaller lamps at the sides of the windshield that will use 3mm LEDs.  The lamp on the roof will use a 5mm LED.  RGS rail truck #6 has a gas tank mounted on the cab roof.  I’m guessing it’s up there for gravity feed.  It also has two marker lamps mounted up there.  On my truck I’ll have a roof mounted horn along with a gas tank and one large lamp.  I considered the marker lamps but it’s already getting too crowded up there.  When the LED’s are wired up all the electronics will be complete.  I’m planning to paint the truck silver with a black hood, black grab irons and black lamps.  I don’t have a name for my railroad yet so I’ll hold off on decals for now.

Tom

Little Things

This project is a learning experience for me.  As I said in my first post, this is my first project on the Anycubic Photon resin printer.  I’ve run into printing problems with distortion and separation so I’ve been spending a lot of time learning how to deal with that.   I have managed to print out the parts that I need though.  The lamps I designed use shortened 3mm and 5mm LEDs.  The larger one on the roof will work out fine but I think I’ll eliminate the smaller two at the lower corners of the windshield.  Just more trouble than they’re worth.  I increased the size of roof mounted gas tank because once I printed it out it looked like it would only hold about two gallons.  Bigger is better.  The visor adds a nice touch.  Right now I have two versions of the cargo box.  One is plain with just two doors and handles.  The other has a roof rack and side ladders along with the two doors.  Every time I look at it I think of the Beverly Hillbillies.  Haven’t decided which way I’ll go, plain and simple or granny’s rocker up on the roof rack.  I was pleased with how well the bell pull printed out.  That’s pretty fine detail.  The photo above shows the parts mocked up in place, waiting for paint and glue.

- Tom

Finishing Up

I got sidetracked with another project but finally got around to final assembly and paint.  I have some clear water slip decal paper and plan to add “U.S. Mail” and “Motor No. 5” on the sides of the cargo box.  I decided to nix the idea of a luggage rack and ladders because it just got too hillbilly lookin’.  Too cluttered.  I think the simplified version suits my railroads interpretation of a rail car.  Not an RGS galloping goose but an acceptable variation.  I’ll post a video here when it’s in operation.

- Tom

Decals

I went through several versions of decals before settling on an “Elephant” font sized between 8 and 12 for various locations on the rail truck.  I haven’t decided on a road name yet for my layout so I’m leaving the doors blank for later lettering and emblems.   I also downsized the door handles from 0.032” to 0.020” or 1.5” to 1.0” diameter in 1:48 scale.

- Tom

Electronics

Got everything wired up and installed in the cargo box.  Plenty of room.  I eliminated some shorts in the harness, removed the damaged wires and wired the motor up directly instead of the contacts and PC board that it came with.  Electronics include an 800mah  battery, battery control board, RF receiver, decoder, Tsunami sound board and a 1” deep base speaker.  The floor of the rail truck bed had slots in it for a speaker so I didn’t need to do any serious reworking for that.

Replaced the ring and pinion gears in the differential and the pinion gear at the tranny output with NWSL metal gears.  The pinion gear at the tranny had been stripped out.  I also replaced the motor because it had a short in the windings.  This poor little truck was in bad shape.

Painting the metal cab with acrylic silver.  Tried masking over the silver to airbrush the flat black and the tape just pulled the silver paint off so I fell back on using a brush for the black.

The headlights were removed and replaced with a single larger lamp on the roof, 5mm LED wired with #30 wire.  There are two dummy lamps mounted beside the windshield posts that were designed to use 3mm LEDs but it required cutting down the LEDs too much.  I may try surface mount LEDs some time in the future but for now I want to get this things up and running.  I also installed clear plastic windows fogged on one side and held in place with “canopy glue”.  I fogged the glass so the electronics wouldn’t show.

- Tom

Final Assembly

 

Once I ensured everything was working properly I re-assembled the rail truck.  In the instructions for the NWSL gears it calls this a literal Chinese puzzle.  No kidding.  There is only one solution for this puzzle so it must go back together in the proper order.  After getting all the repairs done and the electronics installed i pretty much had that order memorized so I only had to start over a few times.  I now see why they built it with wipers on the motor connections because that makes the process that much easier.  Nevertheless, I kept mine hard wired because I’m a sucker for punishment.

Once I had the cab in place I could test the main headlamp on the roof and found that it was a clear red LED.  I didn’t have any 5mm soft white LEDs so now I’m waiting on that order which is supposed to be here on Friday, 3 days.  Before I discovered it was the wrong color I had tested the wiring using a green LED and found that it loaded down the decoder, causing it to shut down.  I added a 220 ohm resister to get past that.

The two smaller lamps are for show only for now but I needed a lens for them so I cut off the front 1/3 of some 3mm LEDs for that.  Looks OK but having them lit up will really add to the look of the tail truck.  Some day.

- Tom

So, the rail truck is

So, the rail truck is basically finished.  Sort of.  While I was programming the decoder I kept looking at the cargo box and now I think I want something different.  I had originally copied the "look" from a late 1800's Doodlebug that I have on my layout.  My thinking was that the shops built the Doodlebug and just kept that style for the rail truck.  But after sitting and looking at it I think it's just too much.  I went back and drew up a cargo box that looks like a boxcar and that looks OK, I think.  I'm printing one up (9 hrs) now to see how it looks in real life.  Something about digits and LEDs and a flat screen that can really be misleading.  My original thought with the boxcar look is that it would be goofy so I'm also working now on a metal clad cargo box ala RGS Geese and school buses.  Just starting designing that.

The problem I have with the current design is that I exaggerated the framing and paneling so they would show up better.  When I went to put on the decals I couldn't get them to set in the gaps between boards for nothing.  I'm using Micro Set and Micro Sol but I think the gaps are just too deep.  The roof is flat on the current design and I don't think they would have done that in the 1920's.  I also don't think the door would be on hinges for this application.  Some of the Geese had double doors on hinges but they were like 20' longer too.

- Tom